The present invention relates to fuel dispensers, and, in particular, to controlling dispensers and associated audio and visual display aspects based on the relative proximity of a customer with respect to the dispenser.
In recent years, traditional fuel dispensers have evolved into elaborate point-of-sale (POS) devices having sophisticated control electronics and user interfaces with large displays and touch-pads or screens. The dispensers include various types of payment means, such as card readers, to expedite and further enhance fueling and retail ordering transactions. Nowadays, a customer is not limited to the purchase of fuel at the dispenser. More recent dispensers allow the customer to purchase services, such as car washes, and goods such as fast food or convenience store products at the dispenser. Once purchased, the customer need only to pick up the goods and services at the station store or at the outlet of a vending machine.
In order to make customer interfaces more efficient and easy to use, the fuel dispenser displays have grown larger and the menu and instruction interfaces have become more complicated. The resulting increase in size and complexity has led to significant increases in power consumption and heat buildup, primarily due to the large displays, and, in particular, the back-lighting associated with these displays. The increase in heat buildup has resulted in the need to add auxiliary cooling systems to cool the multiple displays in each fuel dispenser.
In addition to the increased power consumption and heat generation, station operators have found that many customers fail to recognize the need to interact with the customer interface to initiate dispenser operation and card authorization, even though various stickers and decals have been used to provide initial instructions, such as xe2x80x9cpress here to begin.xe2x80x9d Many customers fail to recognize or even read the information on the display and search for other xe2x80x9chardxe2x80x9d buttons to initiate fueling.
Thus, there is a need to provide an advanced multimedia dispenser and control system capable of saving power, reducing heat buildup and drawing attention to the display as a customer approaches the dispenser in order to more effectively communicate to the customer that interaction with the display is necessary to operate the fuel dispenser.
The present invention fulfills the needs described above by providing a fuel dispenser capable of sensing the proximity or location of a customer relative to the fuel dispenser without requiring direct customer contact and controlling the display or aspects of the display accordingly to conserve energy, reduce heat generation or draw the customer""s attention to the display once the customer is within a relative proximity to the fuel dispenser. Based on such proximity or location detection, a control system activates the display, provides select graphic or video information to the display and/or controls the back-lighting or display intensity.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a fuel dispenser with dual-mode display control based on customer proximity. The dispenser typically includes a housing and delivery hardware for delivering fuel to a vehicle; a display associated with the housing having a first and second mode; proximity sensing electronics associated with the housing adapted to sense the proximity of a customer relative to the housing; and a control system coupled to the display and the proximity sensing electronics. The control system is adapted to operate the display in a first mode when a customer is not relatively proximate to the housing, and to operate the display in a second mode when a customer is relatively proximate to the housing.
The control system may provide a dimmer display in the first mode and a brighter display for the second mode. The first and second modes may correspond to inactive and active display states, respectively. If the display is a liquid crystal display, or like display, having back-lighting, the control system may be adapted to operate the back-lighting in a reduced level in the first mode and at an increased level in the second mode. The back-lighting may be turned completely off or reduced in some fashion to conserve energy. Reducing or eliminating backlighting during non-fueling periods helps avoid the need to add active cooling systems to the dispensers. These systems require additional energy for operation and add significant expense to the cost of manufacturing dispensers.
Alternatively, the control system may provide a first display having graphics and/or video information pertaining to periods between transactions in the first mode, and a second display pertaining to periods of transaction, especially the beginning of a transaction, in the second mode. The information displayed may be graphics information from a graphic generator associated with the control system or new video information from a video source associated with or controlled by the control system.
Another aspect of the present invention integrates the proximity sensing electronics and the display electronics wherein the display is configured to operate in a highly sensitive mode to sense customers proximate to the display in the first mode and in a less sensitive mode to provide a touch screen display in the second mode. Alternatively, the proximity sensing electronics may include one or more proximity sensors located at various points on the fuel dispenser to sense the proximity of a customer relative to the fuel dispenser. The sensors may be used to simply sense the approach and/or presence of a customer relative to the fuel dispenser or may be configured to provide signals to the control system indicative of varying degrees of relative proximity. In the latter case, the control system may be adapted to determine the approximate relative location of a customer with respect to the fuel dispenser and adjust aspects of the display accordingly. For example, the location information determined by the control system may be used to adjust the viewing angle to optimize customer viewing or may be used to change the font or point size of text appearing on the display.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of operating a dispenser display in two modes. The method includes the steps of (1) operating a fuel dispenser display in a first mode; (2) sensing a customer proximate a fuel dispenser; and (3) operating the fuel dispenser display in a second mode upon sensing the customer proximate the fuel dispenser.
In those embodiments having dedicated proximity sensors, any type of proximity sensing devices are acceptable. These devices include infrared sensors and radio frequency (RF) sensors, such as radar systems. When the touch screen display is used to sense proximity, a touch screen display capable of operating at various frequencies and sensitivities is preferred.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered with the drawings.